Zimbabwe: Money for nothing

Attempts to alleviate Zimbabwe's critical cash shortages through the introduction of higher denomination notes are so far proving ineffective, as long bank queues have remained into January 2008.

Late last year, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Gideon Gono, introduced three high denomination bearer cheques, Z$250,000 (about US$0.12 at the parallel market rate of US$1 dollar to Z$2 million), Z$500,000 (US$0.25) and Z$750,000 (US$0.37), after initially announcing the phasing out of the Z$200,000 (US$0.10) bearer cheques, which he said were now in the hands of "cash barons" who were selling the notes as a commodity.

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